How Do Ski Trails Get Their Names?
Themes That Pick Up The Resort Name Can Be Catchy And Easy To Remember.
What’s in a name? A few resorts create a theme for trail names. Memorable. Cutesy. Provocative (?) Here’s a trail sign from Waterville Valley Resort.
Credit: Don Burch
Sometimes trail names are descriptive (Easy Mile at Suicide Six), sometimes they are a tribute (Thanks Walt at Mt Snow for its founder Walter Schoenknecht), sometimes they’re humorous (True Grit and No Grit at Waterville Valley), sometimes sensational (Widowmaker at Sugarloaf and Snowshoe) and at several mountains they follow themes. What follows are ski areas where some or all of the trails are themed-named. (This article sourced some of these factiods from a Boston Globe article, What’s The Most Popular Ski Trail Name In New England?)
Gore’s trails are named after Adirondack local sites. The 46er trail is named after the 46 high peaks in the Adirondacks, and the Tahawas trail is named after a ghost town in the area.
Guess where? Wildcat, of course.
Credit: Don Burch
At Wildcat, trails have feline names like Wild Kitten, Polecat and Hairball.
Pat’s Peak trails have names related to types of wind including Tornado, Backdraft, Squall Line and Vortex.
Camden Ski Bowl, within five miles of the ocean, has nautical themed trail names such as Spinnaker, Crow’s Nest, Scrimshaw, Mainsail Glade and Clipper.
Mt Abram’s trails are named after the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. These include Dudley-Do-Right, Boris Badenov, Snidley Whiplash, Fractured Fairytales and Frostbite Falls. Wonder how that happened?
Whaleback has trails named Leviathan, Fluke, Blow Hole, Blubber and Harpoon.
Many of Saddleback’s trails are fly-fishing themed. Examples are Jitterbug, Wooly Bugger, Gnat, Nymph, Tight Line and Warden’s Worry.
King Pine’s trails are, of course, related to pine trees and their products. Pokey Pine, Pine Board and Knotty Pine are examples.
Many of Loon’s trails are terms from the logging industry; Flume, Ripsaw, Crosscut and Walking Boss.
Oz Peak at Sunday River has trails named Flying Monkey, Tin Woodsman, Emerald City and Poppy Fields.
Gunstock has trails named Trigger, Ramrod, Flintlock, Recoil and Pistol.
Magic Mountain has trails named Magician, Hocus Pocus, Wand, Up Your Sleeve and Wizard.
What’s your most notable trail name?
Putting XC Skis Away
Nine Steps For Maintaining Your XC Equipment.
[Editor Note: SeniorsSkiing.com thanks Roger Lohr of XCSkiResorts.com and Andy Gerlach of SkiPost.com and StartSkiWax for this article.]
Preparing the base with hot wax.
The winter and snow cover are leaving us, so what do we do with your xc ski equipment?
1) Cleaning: Use wax remover and Fiber wipe, a chamois-like cloth, to clean the kick zone and the glide zone.
2) Use a fine steel or copper brush to clean excess dirt from base.
3) Apply layer of Start Base (Start is a brand of XC ski wax) or Service or soft non-fluoro glider like SG2 to glide zones.
4) While wax is still soft, use scraper with low pressure to “hot wipe” wax and further dirt away.
5) Follow with Fiber wipe and then a fine steel brush again to remove dirt while refreshing base further. Repeat steps 4 and 5 as necessary until no more dirt is seen coming from base.
6) If you suspect your skis have any base damage (i.e. base sealing), consider having the skis stone ground to reveal a fresh base in the spring before summer storage. A fresh base is the most import feature in a skis ability to hold wax and to glide. Ski shops in most every ski town offer great stone grinding services.
7) Once you have a clean and refreshed base, it is time to saturate the base with a summer storage wax. In the glide zones, melt in a thick layer of Start Base (or Service or soft non-fluoro glider like SG2) and let it cool. If all the wax has been absorbed into the base at any point add another layer on to. Let cool leave it on the ski all summer.
8) Skis should be stored in cool, dry place, out of sunlight and not near heating elements nor near a roof or attic where temperature can rise over 130 degrees F. Skis should be stored loosely strapped with no pressure on camber so that there is no risk that heat and pressure can alter any of the skis camber characteristics.
9) Better to do something than nothing. So at the very, very least crayon your softest glide onto your glide zones right now.
If you have questions, contact Andy Gerlach at SkiPost.com.
This Week In SeniorsSkiing.com (Apr. 21)
Checking The Winter Forecast, Mom-And-Pop: Is Smaller Better?, Editorial: Is Bigger Better?, Silly Falls On Video, Alta GM Retires.
Small is better? Accessible, economical, family-friendly, local ski areas have a community feeling.
Credit: Ski Sundown
This week, a mini-theme has emerged from two of our articles. We have a piece from new contributor Don Burch, who makes the case for the local ski area. Basically, he says, it’s inexpensive, accessible, manageable, and more intimate (think community) than big resorts. Certainly true in our experience.
And, we opine in a SeniorsSkiing.com editorial on the acquisitions that have rocked the ski industry this month: Vail and Aspen scooping up properties all over the map. Will those resorts maintain their attractiveness to seniors? Will discounts still be offered in a corporate pricing environment?
Put these two thoughts together, and you can see a future where seniors are literally drawn into second-tier resorts where amenities, discounts and friends can be readily found. Big resorts, maybe not so much. We’d like your reactions to these big changes in resort ownership.
Temperature: Forecast vs Actual, 2016-17
Credit: NOAA
We also thought it was time to go back to the NOAA Climate Prediction Center’s forecast for the 2016-17 Winter to see how well it held up. Hint: California was the spoiler, but you knew that.
A tip of the ski pole to Alta GM Onno Wieringa who is retiring after an entire career at the area.
Finally, we have a short video clip of classic flops and flips. We know it’s not polite to laugh at other people’s misfortunes on skis, but these are quite funny, nevertheless. Enjoy.
We are moving slowly but surely to spring. We have heard there is a resort in the Sierra that plans to stay open all year. How about that? Would you ski in August?
We’re developing our Spring Survey 2017, and you will be hearing more about that next week.
Meanwhile, thanks for reading SeniorsSkiing.com, tell your friends, and, remember, there are more of us every day and we aren’t going away.
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